A few years ago, my family and I took a trip to New York City to visit my aunt. My father asked me

"Would you ever think about going to school here?"

I shook my head violently no.

A few years later, however, and I was an excited college-student-to-be. I had carried over my hobby of photography into my 'adult' life and was ready to try my hand at exploring more than my backyard.

My photos of New York were not just a display of my photographic capabilities, but they were also my first impressions of the city. I photographed the things that interested me. My photos represent memories, and all the captions I write for them come from my memory of the minute I took the picture.

Broadway and Kosciuszko (2016)

This picture was taken from the subway station near my aunt's house in Brooklyn. I took it while waiting for the train to take me to Pace for my first college visit. I'm surprised that I chose a person as my subject, as at the time I was much more shy in my photography; I tended to exclude human subjects from my photos for most of the first semester. It wasn't until I realized that, in a city of 8 Million people, I would have to start including them to show the real New York.

Onward (2016)

This picture was taken only a few minutes after the previous, and shows a look forward not just physically on the train, but also a look forward into my future. A few minutes after this picture was taken, I too, my first (and only) tour of Pace University. To be honest, I wasn't completely sold at the time, but I decided to pull the trigger, and I feel that my future, as well as, my photography, have benefited because of it.

Wild (2016)

This was taken earlier in the trip; my mother and I went to Roosevelt Island to explore and see the city. It was mid March, and a snowstorm had just hit a few days before. As a resident of Hawai'i, I had not really had a chance to experience snow, and on the same day I took this picture, I made my first snow angel and made my first snowman.

Squirrel (2016)

We don't have squirrels in Hawai'i, along with a large host of birds and other creatures that people from the East Coast take for granted. This would explain why I have so many different pictures of this same squirrel: I was excited for all the new things (and creatures) I would see.

Even after spending almost an entire year living on my own on the East Coast, I am still engaged and interested in what it has to offer. I've found that over time, my photography has become broader in scope, while my philosophy about photography has narrowed. I seek to take pictures of the things that people miss, and to capture the subtle beauty of New York City, through the eyes of somebody who is seeing it for the first time.